1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to: an image forming system provided with: an image forming apparatus having multiple power saving modes; an external terminal capable of accessing the image forming apparatus via a network to remotely operate the image forming apparatus; a method for the image forming system to recover the image forming apparatus from power saving mode; the image forming apparatus; the external terminal; and recoding medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description sets forth the inventor's knowledge of related art and problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
There has been known an image forming apparatus such as a multi-function peripheral (MFP), i.e., a multifunctional digital machine, having the following three power saving modes by which to internally provide power supply in different manners:
(1) a first power saving mode for cutting off power supply to a load;
(2) a second power saving mode for cutting off power supply to a load and switch at least a CPU of a controller to suspend-to-ram (STR) state; and
(3) a third power saving mode for providing power supply only to a wireless LAN module and a power supply cutoff controller that determines whether power supply to a load should be cut off or provided.
When recovering from the second power saving mode, an image forming apparatus needs to switch its behavior depending on the cause of recovery; however, if recovering from the second power saving mode by the method of recovering from the third power saving mode, an image forming apparatus could not switch its behavior because of not being able to detect the cause of recovery.
An external terminal, a portable one for example, may access an image forming apparatus via multiple access paths; however, it would be hardly possible for such a portable terminal to detect the power saving mode which the image forming apparatus is presently in.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-144676 teaches a technique of improving the convenience of a user when he/she conducts a wireless communication by operating an image forming apparatus having a wireless communication function. Specifically, the technique is a multifunctional machine having power saving mode and standby mode, and the multifunctional machine is provided with: a receiver that is capable of detecting wireless information signals from a terminal apparatus; and a controller that switches the operation mode to standby mode if the receiver receives a wireless information signal from a terminal apparatus while the multifunctional machine is in power saving mode.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-144676, the multifunctional machine is at least allowed to terminate power saving mode if receiving a wireless signal from an external terminal while it is in power saving mode and there is no disclosure of such a method as described above for an external terminal to recover an image forming apparatus having multiple power saving modes, from any of the power saving modes.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. Indeed, certain features of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages, while still retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.